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KS - Randy Leach, 17, Linwood, 15 April 1988

In the spring of 1988, 6’2” 220 lb., 17 year old Randy Leach of rural Linwood, KS was looking forward to his high school graduation and spending the summer contemplating his next life move atop his brand new John Deere Lawn Tractor. No long range plans, no pressing matters to attend to, just a summer doing what he loved to do, restoring his ‘pride and joy’ 1966 Mustang, mowing lawns and hanging out with friends. Sweet.

But that was not in the cards.

On April 15, 1988 while attending a pre-graduation party at a friend’s rural home with 100 other people, Randy and the family car, a gray 4-door, 1985 Dodge 600 sedan disappeared. As fast as Houdini could escape a milk can, Randy was gone, never to be heard from again, and the investigators and rumor mill went to work.

Let’s back up. Early in the evening of April 15th as Randy was readying to leave, his father, Harold gave him a twenty to stop by the K-mart in Lawrence to pick up a $15 bottle of water glass wax to put on his new tractor to hold the paint. That and the money he already had on him gave Randy approximately $50 to $60 in his pocket when he left the house. With a goodbye and a “don’t be out too late” from Harold, Randy walked out of the house and drove down the drive.

The next thing we know, it is approximately 6:45 PM, Randy and his friend Steve Daughtery are cruising around Linwood (pop. 300) and stop at Stout’s Corner, the local quickie mart, where Randy bought $3 worth of gas, two candy bars and 2 cans of Pepsi, Steve purchased a six-pack of beer.

*My comments are only my opinion, not fact. It is my commentary on the topic, and I'm exercising my 1st Amendment rights as a US citizen. Comments are NOT made with any malicious intent.

I agree with what John Douglas said in his book Law and Disorder:

"Our 1st allegiance must always be to justice. Justice is often uncomfortable, but that doesn't mean we should turn our heads away. Justice is truth in action. Whatever it means and wherever it takes us. Justice is not a political game, it is a search for truth."

Written by Kim Kolton taken from "It’s all done with smoke and mirrors" Jan 30, 2011 (I was asked to post for Crimewire by Kim) Updated Fri May 13, 2011

Originally Posted by ChaCha

In the spring of 1988, 6’2” 220 lb., 17 year old Randy Leach of rural Linwood, KS was looking forward to his high school graduation and spending the summer contemplating his next life move atop his brand new John Deere Lawn Tractor. No long range plans, no pressing matters to attend to, just a summer doing what he loved to do, restoring his ‘pride and joy’ 1966 Mustang, mowing lawns and hanging out with friends. Sweet.

But that was not in the cards.

On April 15, 1988 while attending a pre-graduation party at a friend’s rural home with 100 other people, Randy and the family car, a gray 4-door, 1985 Dodge 600 sedan disappeared. As fast as Houdini could escape a milk can, Randy was gone, never to be heard from again, and the investigators and rumor mill went to work.

Let’s back up. Early in the evening of April 15th as Randy was readying to leave, his father, Harold gave him a twenty to stop by the K-mart in Lawrence to pick up a $15 bottle of water glass wax to put on his new tractor to hold the paint. That and the money he already had on him gave Randy approximately $50 to $60 in his pocket when he left the house. With a goodbye and a “don’t be out too late” from Harold, Randy walked out of the house and drove down the drive.

The next thing we know, it is approximately 6:45 PM, Randy and his friend Steve Daughtery are cruising around Linwood (pop. 300) and stop at Stout’s Corner, the local quickie mart, where Randy bought $3 worth of gas, two candy bars and 2 cans of Pepsi, Steve purchased a six-pack of beer.

*My comments are only my opinion, not fact. It is my commentary on the topic, and I'm exercising my 1st Amendment rights as a US citizen. Comments are NOT made with any malicious intent.

I agree with what John Douglas said in his book Law and Disorder:

"Our 1st allegiance must always be to justice. Justice is often uncomfortable, but that doesn't mean we should turn our heads away. Justice is truth in action. Whatever it means and wherever it takes us. Justice is not a political game, it is a search for truth."

Something tells me that he was slipped a spiked drink at the graduation party, perhaps even by someone he knew. (i.e the teens experimenting with drugs.) Randy may not have been told the truth about what was in the drink. Additionally, alcohol and chocolate from the candy bars he may have eaten earlier could have intensified the effects of the possible drugs.

That could have happened , or Randy may have been made a scapegoat as part of a premeditated plan to cover up for someone else's crimes.

Devastating and heartbreaking. Randy seems like a very cool easy-going guy, who tragically, even if for a few minutes to hours on that day, got mixed up with the wrong crowd and likely met with fatal consequences.

For the first few years, Harold and Alberta Leach kept hoping their missing son, Randy, would come home. Twenty-six years have passed since the high school senior and the family car vanished from a graduation party, but the Linwood parents still want to find their only child.

They’re desperate to know whether law enforcement left no stone unturned in the search for Randy, in part because they’ve felt for years that investigators were secretive, refusing to keep them abreast of developments. But law enforcement agencies refuse to release the records, citing an ongoing investigation, even the broad outlines of which they decline to reveal...

The Leaches’ desire for information is only stronger since they learned earlier this year that law enforcement, including the KBI and the FBI, had had a suspect in the 1990s who died in prison four years ago. That suspect, Eric Montgomery, also had been a suspect in two 1990 homicides that occurred seven miles from the Leaches' home.

I just saw the tjworld article and must confess I had not heard of Randy's case before. So am I understanding correctly that his car was not found either? It's extremely rare for a person to go missing and their car goes unfound also. Usually it's found in a parking lot or side of a road or something. It makes me wonder if he went off the road somewhere driving home.

I have joined the fb group and they sent me a message on fb asking that I ask y'all (and anyone else) to join the group too. They are trying to get the number of members up because they said it looks better to the media which they are trying to get Randy's story out there.

About 6:30 p.m., Randy left the family's driveway and turned east toward Linwood. He had about $50 after his dad gave him $20 for the wax. He was wearing a blue T-shirt, Levi's and white tennis shoes.

During the course of the evening, Randy picked up Steve Daughtery, an older acquaintance, and drove to De Soto, where his 1966 Mustang was being restored. The car was a graduation gift from his parents. He later stopped at Stout's Convenience Store in Linwood and purchased two candy bars, two bottles of soda and $3 worth of gasoline.

Randy reportedly arrived at the bonfire about 9:30 p.m. It was a pre-graduation party for schoolmate Kim Erwin and was given by her mother, Annie Erwin. The Erwins had just moved to the area from Kansas City, Kan. About 100 people attended the bash where a punch spiked with grain alcohol reportedly was sold for $3 per cup; refills were free.

By various accounts, Randy, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound teenager, was too intoxicated to walk straight between the time he arrived and the last time he was reported seen between 1:15 a.m. and 2 a.m. No one saw Randy or the Dodge leave.

Meanwhile, Alberta and Harold slept soundly through the night, and Randy missed his 12:30 a.m. curfew, a rarity. About 6 a.m., Alberta woke up, pulled back the curtains and peered out the kitchen window. The car was gone.

Steve Daugherty, one of the last people certainly seen with Randy the night he disappeared, showed police in March of 1989 a severed foot in a tennis shoe on the banks of the Kansas River. He said he found it while strolling. Police searched the area for other remains but couldn't find any. They concluded the foot was not Randy's. Daugherty, in his 30s when Randy disappeared, has since died.

Internal police reports about the Randy Leach case began showing up in the Leaches' mailbox. Harold Leach said he doesn't know the source of the documents but believes they came from sympathetic law officers convinced the investigation was being botched by authorities.

What is known is that the night he disappeared, he went to a bonfire party in Leavenworth County at the Erwin's, a family who was new to the area.

Many people saw him there, and they report that he was having trouble walking. Annie Erwin - the mother of the high school senior hosting the party - saw Randy just after 2 a.m.

"The first time I saw him I said 'Oh my God, what's wrong with him?' I said 'You guys better keep an eye on him', because I didn't like the way he was acting. He was just stumbling. But when you looked at him, he didn't look drunk," Erwin told the Journal-World for a June 26, 1988, article. "I never saw Randy with a drink in his hand while he was out here."